Merry Christmas & Happy New Year de PA7MDJ
December 24, 2017
December 23, 2017
Christmas Caroling via HF from Antarctica Set for December 23
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It's very short notice, but I wanted to share this recently discovered news item from the ARRL, giving my fellow Antarctica enthusiasts the opportunity to tune in to some very special, festive signals from "The Great White Continent" this Christmas Season! Thanks to my friend Alan Gale G4TMV for notifying me!
From http://www.arrl.org/news
It's very short notice, but I wanted to share this recently discovered news item from the ARRL, giving my fellow Antarctica enthusiasts the opportunity to tune in to some very special, festive signals from "The Great White Continent" this Christmas Season! Thanks to my friend Alan Gale G4TMV for notifying me!
From http://www.arrl.org/news
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12/21/2017
Each year, the “residents” of McMurdo Station, Antarctica, celebrate Christmas by singing and sharing Christmas Carols via HF — using a non-Amateur Radio frequency just above 40 meters — for those at remote Antarctic field camps. They’ll be doing it again in 2017, on Saturday, December 23, at 2300 UTC.
“Multiple stations are involved, each with different equipment,” explained Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, an assistant research professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology who has been part of the chorus in the past. “McMurdo Station and South Pole Station probably have the most powerful equipment. Field camps and remote stations could be calling in with systems that put out as little as 20 W.”
Frissell said McMurdo Station would serve as a net control of sorts to coordinate the various broadcasts, which will include a small choir and vibraphonist John Piper at McMurdo. Other camps and South Pole Station each will have a chance to chime in.
“This year, we are asking ham radio operators around the world to listen in and e-mail short-wave listening reports telling us how far away the carols are heard,” Frissell said. “Last time I did this, almost all of the positive QSL reports were from South Pole Station.”
The broadcast will take place on December 23 on 7995 kHz USB at 2300 UTC, which will be Christmas Eve in some parts of the world. Frissell requests reports via e-mail. For a Christmas in Antarctica SWL QSL card, send an SASE to his home address. A YouTube recording offers a sample of last year’s transmission.
A graduate of Virginia Tech, Frissell started HamSCI, Ham Radio Science Investigation, which sponsored the Solar Eclipse QSO Party this past year. At NJIT, he works in the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research.
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December 12, 2017
My current WSPR / QRSS MEPT beacon station
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Here's a photo of my current WSPR / QRSS MEPT* setup in the attic.
From left to right:
On the back of the table is a wooden box to store the various Low Pass Filters for the U3S. I've built my U3S without the relay-switched LPF board, so when changing band I have to swap the LPF manually.
The loop tuner holds a magnetic loop antenna made of a wooden support and RG-213 coax cable. The loop has a 5 metre circumference (radius = 5/2π = 0.8 m). Both the loop and loop tuner are homebrew. The mag loop can be tuned for the 80, 60, 40 or 30m band. The big size of the loop guarantees a relatively good efficiency on the lower bands (which I was aiming for while designing it), but means that I can not get it tuned on the higher bands. In the future I might make a second smaller loop that can also be used on at least the 20m band. The mag loop and tuner are not weatherproof and will be placed inside in the attic only, or maybe every now and then outside on a beautiful summer night.
I've only just recently built the magnetic loop antenna, and I've been experimenting with it mainly on 40m WSPR. It really works great, especially considering that it's placed inside in an antenna-unfriendly environment (concrete walls on two sides, several other antennas and metal structures nearby).
The past couple of days on 40m WSPR with the loop and the 200mW U3S I've been spotted all over Europe, by several stations in the United States (including N5CEY on the Mexican border in Texas), VP9NI on Bermuda, and 9L/KW4XJ in Sierra Leone. Looking at the results I would say the loop is at least performing equally well to the outdoor loaded EFHW sloper wire antenna that I was previously using for my MEPT setup, maybe even better.
I haven't been testing the loop on 80m yet as I don't have an 80m LPF. I have one on order at QRP Labs and as soon as received and built I will start experimenting on 80m WSPR. I can't wait to see the results for that band.
Over time I will be optimizing the mag loop. I'm looking for a way to make tuning easier. Now I use my Yaesu FT-817 to tune for maximum noise on receive nearby the WSPR/QRSS frequency I want to use, and then fine tune until the rig's built-in SWR meter shows no bars anymore on transmit. I then connect the U3S.
I'm looking into a way to tune the mag loop without the help of the FT-817. In the future I would like to experiment with tuning methods used by other mag loop users. This includes a small NE-2 type neon lamp that at maximum brightness indicates maximum antenna current, or measuring for maximum RF voltage across the capacitor plates. I'll have to do some more online research into both.
I will be participating with the MEPT setup as it is now and as described above in the "Night of QRSS" New Year's Operation Celebration of the Las Cruces QRSS Mafia. More information can be found here and here. The event has generated quite some interest on the QRP Labs group recently.
Below I will post some links to interesting QRSS websites that I've recently found.
* MEPT = Manned Experimental Propagation Transmitter
See also:
http://www.zianet.com/dhassall/BILLIONMPW.html
http://dropbox.curry.com/docs/2012_The_world_of_QRSS.pdf
http://www.zianet.com/dhassall/QRSS_A.html
http://swharden.com/qrss/plus/
https://sites.google.com/site/g7aqkhamradio/home/my-qrss-beacon
Here's a photo of my current WSPR / QRSS MEPT* setup in the attic.
From left to right:
- Magnetic loop tuner (QRP only, max approximately 10 watts) and magnetic loop antenna
- 5V 8000mAh powerbank
- Voltmeter
- 200 mW U3S QRSS / WSPR transmitter with QLG1 GPS receiver in the same housing (both homebuilt from a QRP Labs kit)
On the back of the table is a wooden box to store the various Low Pass Filters for the U3S. I've built my U3S without the relay-switched LPF board, so when changing band I have to swap the LPF manually.
The loop tuner holds a magnetic loop antenna made of a wooden support and RG-213 coax cable. The loop has a 5 metre circumference (radius = 5/2π = 0.8 m). Both the loop and loop tuner are homebrew. The mag loop can be tuned for the 80, 60, 40 or 30m band. The big size of the loop guarantees a relatively good efficiency on the lower bands (which I was aiming for while designing it), but means that I can not get it tuned on the higher bands. In the future I might make a second smaller loop that can also be used on at least the 20m band. The mag loop and tuner are not weatherproof and will be placed inside in the attic only, or maybe every now and then outside on a beautiful summer night.
I've only just recently built the magnetic loop antenna, and I've been experimenting with it mainly on 40m WSPR. It really works great, especially considering that it's placed inside in an antenna-unfriendly environment (concrete walls on two sides, several other antennas and metal structures nearby).
The past couple of days on 40m WSPR with the loop and the 200mW U3S I've been spotted all over Europe, by several stations in the United States (including N5CEY on the Mexican border in Texas), VP9NI on Bermuda, and 9L/KW4XJ in Sierra Leone. Looking at the results I would say the loop is at least performing equally well to the outdoor loaded EFHW sloper wire antenna that I was previously using for my MEPT setup, maybe even better.
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| Some of the 40m WSPR spots of the past few days sorted by distance |
Over time I will be optimizing the mag loop. I'm looking for a way to make tuning easier. Now I use my Yaesu FT-817 to tune for maximum noise on receive nearby the WSPR/QRSS frequency I want to use, and then fine tune until the rig's built-in SWR meter shows no bars anymore on transmit. I then connect the U3S.
I'm looking into a way to tune the mag loop without the help of the FT-817. In the future I would like to experiment with tuning methods used by other mag loop users. This includes a small NE-2 type neon lamp that at maximum brightness indicates maximum antenna current, or measuring for maximum RF voltage across the capacitor plates. I'll have to do some more online research into both.
I will be participating with the MEPT setup as it is now and as described above in the "Night of QRSS" New Year's Operation Celebration of the Las Cruces QRSS Mafia. More information can be found here and here. The event has generated quite some interest on the QRP Labs group recently.
Below I will post some links to interesting QRSS websites that I've recently found.
* MEPT = Manned Experimental Propagation Transmitter
See also:
http://www.zianet.com/dhassall/BILLIONMPW.html
http://dropbox.curry.com/docs/2012_The_world_of_QRSS.pdf
http://www.zianet.com/dhassall/QRSS_A.html
http://swharden.com/qrss/plus/
https://sites.google.com/site/g7aqkhamradio/home/my-qrss-beacon
December 11, 2017
Canada C3 Expedition update nr. 2
While the Canada C3 Expedition came to a succesful end back in October, the WSPR beacon aboard the expedition ship "Polar Prince" continues to be active. The CG3EXP callsign licence expired and the beacon now can be caught on the HF WSPR sub bands with the new callsign VE0EXP.
The coming period the Polar Prince will be returning from the Canadian West Coast to its home port on the Canadian East Coast on a long home voyage via the Panama Canal. And radio amateurs, like on its voyage along Canada's three coasts last summer, will also be able to track the ship on its home voyage by monitoring for its VE0EXP WSPR beacon. The WSPR beacon continues to transmit on its usual time and band schedule. As of writing this, the Polar Prince currently is in grid CM78 off the coast of California. More info can be found on the CG3EXP qrz.com page.
From CG3EXP trustee Barrie Crampton VE3BSB and the CG3EXP team, as a token of appreciation, and as recognition of my help in publicizing the C3 Expedition, I received the beautiful C3 Expedition certificate, and it's which much pride that I present it here on the PA7MDJ blog. My thanks and compliments go out to Barrie Crampton and the others of the CG3EXP team for the wonderful project, and for making the ham community part of the epic voyage of the Canada C3 Expedition.
More about the Canada C3 Expedition and my monitoring sessions for its WSPR beacon in my blog entries of October 29th and June 5th.
The coming period the Polar Prince will be returning from the Canadian West Coast to its home port on the Canadian East Coast on a long home voyage via the Panama Canal. And radio amateurs, like on its voyage along Canada's three coasts last summer, will also be able to track the ship on its home voyage by monitoring for its VE0EXP WSPR beacon. The WSPR beacon continues to transmit on its usual time and band schedule. As of writing this, the Polar Prince currently is in grid CM78 off the coast of California. More info can be found on the CG3EXP qrz.com page.
From CG3EXP trustee Barrie Crampton VE3BSB and the CG3EXP team, as a token of appreciation, and as recognition of my help in publicizing the C3 Expedition, I received the beautiful C3 Expedition certificate, and it's which much pride that I present it here on the PA7MDJ blog. My thanks and compliments go out to Barrie Crampton and the others of the CG3EXP team for the wonderful project, and for making the ham community part of the epic voyage of the Canada C3 Expedition.
More about the Canada C3 Expedition and my monitoring sessions for its WSPR beacon in my blog entries of October 29th and June 5th.
December 09, 2017
More 40m fun!
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In my blog of March 4th I already wrote about how I'm continued to be surprised by the DX I'm able to work on the 40m band with low power (100 watts or less) and a simple loaded EFHW sloper wire antenna; the US East Coast, the Caribbean, South America, Middle America, Africa, Australia, and even Antarctica, they're all in the log. Don't be discouraged when you have only modest equipment and antennas to your disposal. Combined with some luck and perseverance it will work for you! I know, because it does for me!
Especially the Caribbean is an easy target, and the past year or so the 40m band has been a good provider to me of quite some ATNOs from Africa as well. Now that the higher bands are in bad shape, 40m has become my primary DX band!
Looking at the success I had last winter / spring on 40m QSOing several Russian Antarctic bases in CW and various stations in the southern part of the African continent in both CW and digital modes, I guess for extreme DX, roughly taken, the path from my QTH going down south across the African continent to Antarctica is a very good one for me.
This again was proved the last couple of months when I managed to contact again several stations in the Antarctic region. Last September on 40m in JT65 I managed to work the Polish Antarctic Station Arctowski HF0ARC on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, IOTA AN-010 (more about this QSO in my Sept. 14 blog). Then early October on 40m CW I managed to work FT5XT/MM on a fishing trawler off the Kerguelen Islands (see separate "QSL card in the Spotlight" section below). And very recently on 40m CW I finally also succeeded in making a QSO with the Russian Antarctic Station Bellingshausen RI1ANO, also on King George Island. After a long time and many attempts in JT65, FT8, and CW on both 40m and several other bands I finally managed to put this station in the log.
On several nights while running JT65 on 40m I was also spotted by the Japanese Antarctic Station Syowa 8J1RL. Unfortunately 8J1RL at the time seemed to be monitoring only, as I saw no signal of the station at my side (or other stations trying to contact the Japanese Antarctic base), and thus no QSO could be made.
During the CQ Worldwide CW contest on November 26 around 15:00 UTC the 40m band once again surprised me when I managed to work K6AR in grid DM13ib near San Diego, California. It left me absolutely astonished, to say the least. Ok, I had worked Antarctica and other distant parts of the world on many occasions, but with my equipment on 40m I'd always considered the path to the US West Coast to be a very difficult or even an impossible one! I've made some contacts over the years, but also on the higher bands California always has been a very difficult area to reach for me.
One would expect a greyline contact here, but strictly seen it wasn't; K6AR had just come out of the grey line zone though, and I was about to go into it. The screenshot below from DX Atlas shows the great circle path completely in daylight. It might also have been a long path contact but I don't believe so.
The good 40m path south to Antarctica looks very promising for me for the upcoming 3Y0Z Bouvet Island DXpedition planned for early 2018. Looking at the path to Bouvet Island, I should have no problems catching their CW signals on the 40m band. I expect the pile-ups for this DXpedition to be HUGE and to be lasting until the very last second of the operation, so I'm not expecting to work them, but I'm hoping to at least hear them, so that I can send in an SWL report. Since I've got my ham licence, I usually don't send SWL reports anymore, but for Bouvet Island I'm going to make an exception and return to my roots and to how it all started: being an SWL! From this special DXpedition and special location I just need to have that QSL card momento! If not for a 2-way QSO then for an SWL report!
I've been deeply fascinated by the elusive "Bouvetøya", as the uninhabited, subantarctic Norwegian dependency is officially called, for a long time. In the 1990s I read about the mysterious Bouvet Island in the book "Het ijspaleis" (The Ice Palace) by Boudewijn Büch (1948-2002). Büch is one of my favourite Dutch writers, not for his fictional novels, but for his non-fiction series of island books. As far as I know the books were never translated, but for every island enthusiast that's able to read Dutch, the series of books is a must-read. I can without doubt say that the origin of many of my fascinations with certain islands and places on this earth derives from reading one of Büch's books. "Het ijspaleis" is largely dedicated to Bouvet. Although he never visited the island, Büch was an authority on Bouvet and therefore unique in the Netherlands and maybe even the World. Reading "Het ijspaleis" makes you realize how remote and elusive the island really is, not only on the ham bands, but also in many other ways.
For those interested in 40m DX, Oene Spanjer PA3CWN is an avid 40m DXer, and his propagation observations for this particular band as laid out on his qrz.com page are very interesting, and they are recommended reading for every serious 40m DXer!
You can read more of my 40m contemplations in the March 4 blog entry linked to at the top of this page. More on FT5XT/MM in a separate section below
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudewijn_B%C3%BCch
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudewijn_B%C3%BCch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingshausen_Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showa_Station_(Antarctica)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouvet_Island
In my blog of March 4th I already wrote about how I'm continued to be surprised by the DX I'm able to work on the 40m band with low power (100 watts or less) and a simple loaded EFHW sloper wire antenna; the US East Coast, the Caribbean, South America, Middle America, Africa, Australia, and even Antarctica, they're all in the log. Don't be discouraged when you have only modest equipment and antennas to your disposal. Combined with some luck and perseverance it will work for you! I know, because it does for me!
Especially the Caribbean is an easy target, and the past year or so the 40m band has been a good provider to me of quite some ATNOs from Africa as well. Now that the higher bands are in bad shape, 40m has become my primary DX band!
Looking at the success I had last winter / spring on 40m QSOing several Russian Antarctic bases in CW and various stations in the southern part of the African continent in both CW and digital modes, I guess for extreme DX, roughly taken, the path from my QTH going down south across the African continent to Antarctica is a very good one for me.
This again was proved the last couple of months when I managed to contact again several stations in the Antarctic region. Last September on 40m in JT65 I managed to work the Polish Antarctic Station Arctowski HF0ARC on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, IOTA AN-010 (more about this QSO in my Sept. 14 blog). Then early October on 40m CW I managed to work FT5XT/MM on a fishing trawler off the Kerguelen Islands (see separate "QSL card in the Spotlight" section below). And very recently on 40m CW I finally also succeeded in making a QSO with the Russian Antarctic Station Bellingshausen RI1ANO, also on King George Island. After a long time and many attempts in JT65, FT8, and CW on both 40m and several other bands I finally managed to put this station in the log.
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| Russian Antarctic Station Bellingshausen, South Shetland Islands (from the RI1ANO qrz.com page) |
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| Operator Alexandr (UA1OJL) at RI1ANO (from the RI1ANO qrz.com page) |
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| PA7MDJ spotted by 8J1RL on 40m. Screenshot from PSKREPORTER. |
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| Syowa Station, Antarctica under the rays of the Aurora australis (from the 8J1RL qrz.com page) |
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| Syowa Station, Antarctica (from the 8J1RL qrz.com page) |
One would expect a greyline contact here, but strictly seen it wasn't; K6AR had just come out of the grey line zone though, and I was about to go into it. The screenshot below from DX Atlas shows the great circle path completely in daylight. It might also have been a long path contact but I don't believe so.
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| Short path between PA7MDJ and K6AR on 26 Nov 2017 14:53 UTC |
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| LotW QSL |
I've been deeply fascinated by the elusive "Bouvetøya", as the uninhabited, subantarctic Norwegian dependency is officially called, for a long time. In the 1990s I read about the mysterious Bouvet Island in the book "Het ijspaleis" (The Ice Palace) by Boudewijn Büch (1948-2002). Büch is one of my favourite Dutch writers, not for his fictional novels, but for his non-fiction series of island books. As far as I know the books were never translated, but for every island enthusiast that's able to read Dutch, the series of books is a must-read. I can without doubt say that the origin of many of my fascinations with certain islands and places on this earth derives from reading one of Büch's books. "Het ijspaleis" is largely dedicated to Bouvet. Although he never visited the island, Büch was an authority on Bouvet and therefore unique in the Netherlands and maybe even the World. Reading "Het ijspaleis" makes you realize how remote and elusive the island really is, not only on the ham bands, but also in many other ways.
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| The island series books by Boudewijn Büch, from the PA7MDJ library. On the right "Het ijspaleis: eilanden, derde deel" from 1993. |
You can read more of my 40m contemplations in the March 4 blog entry linked to at the top of this page. More on FT5XT/MM in a separate section below
See also:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudewijn_B%C3%BCch
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudewijn_B%C3%BCch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingshausen_Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showa_Station_(Antarctica)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouvet_Island
QSL card in the Spotlight: FT5XT/MM near Kerguelen Islands
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FT5XT/MM is operated by Frenchman Gildas Ballanec F4HQZ (ex-TU5KG). Gildas is the captain of a fishing vessel which each year sails in the FT5 area for a period of about three months. He's active as FT5XT/MM from the ship when he sails within the vicinity of the Kerguelen Islands, and as FT5WQ/MM within the vicinity of the Crozet Islands. As most of you will know, /MM stands for Maritime Mobile and is added to an amateur radio callsign to indicate the station is located aboard a ship at sea.
Sporadically Gildas goes ashore on one of the islands (for instance when the ship needs refueling) and will be active from there with the callsigns FT5XT (on Kerguelen) and FT5WQ (on Crozet) without the /MM suffix added. Both Kerguelen and Crozet are part of the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises or TAAF and both form a separate DXCC entity. In case of Gildas' operations, of course they will only count as such when he operates from the islands and not when he's operating /MM from the ship at sea.
In previous years Gildas sailed on the fishing trawler "Ile de la Réunion", and I assume this year is no different. The "Ile de la Réunion" is shown on the QSL card and on his TU5KG qrz.com page. The "Radio Officers" website in an October 9th, 2017 news item also reports Gildas is aboard the F/V "Ile de la Réunion".
For more info on this QSO, see also my "More 40m fun!" blog entry above.
See also:
https://dx-world.net/ft5xt-kerguelen-island/
https://dxnews.com/ft5xt_kerguelen-islands/
https://www.trafficlist.net/fv-ile-de-la-reunion-ft5xtmm/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Southern_and_Antarctic_Lands
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:751477/mmsi:635225000/imo:9246970/vessel:ILE_DE_LA_REUNION
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| QSL card from FT5XT/MM for a 40m CW QSO with PA7MDJ on 8 Oct 2017 0115 UTC. |
Sporadically Gildas goes ashore on one of the islands (for instance when the ship needs refueling) and will be active from there with the callsigns FT5XT (on Kerguelen) and FT5WQ (on Crozet) without the /MM suffix added. Both Kerguelen and Crozet are part of the Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises or TAAF and both form a separate DXCC entity. In case of Gildas' operations, of course they will only count as such when he operates from the islands and not when he's operating /MM from the ship at sea.
In previous years Gildas sailed on the fishing trawler "Ile de la Réunion", and I assume this year is no different. The "Ile de la Réunion" is shown on the QSL card and on his TU5KG qrz.com page. The "Radio Officers" website in an October 9th, 2017 news item also reports Gildas is aboard the F/V "Ile de la Réunion".
For more info on this QSO, see also my "More 40m fun!" blog entry above.
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| Kerguelen Islands (source) |
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| The "Ile de la Réunion" (source) |
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| Map showing the location of Kerguelen and Crozet (source) |
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| QSO confirmed in Clublog |
See also:
https://dx-world.net/ft5xt-kerguelen-island/
https://dxnews.com/ft5xt_kerguelen-islands/
https://www.trafficlist.net/fv-ile-de-la-reunion-ft5xtmm/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Islands
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Southern_and_Antarctic_Lands
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:751477/mmsi:635225000/imo:9246970/vessel:ILE_DE_LA_REUNION
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